First Comes Like (Modern Love #3) - Alisha Rai Page 0,85
to Luna.”
Adil Uncle scrutinized Dev for a long moment, and slowly, he lowered his utensil. “You want this.”
“I do.” Dev controlled the quiver of his lips. Under the panic and the worry was pure excitement at the prospect of actually being married to Jia at some vague point in the future.
“You’re a romantic like your parents, I see. The rest of your father’s family couldn’t stifle that out of you.”
His cheeks grew warm. “I don’t know about romantic.”
“I do.” Adil dropped his spatula in the pot and stirred with vigor. “Well, now. This is a different story. I have been praying for you to find a good woman, and here she is. It calls for a celebration. We will invite her and her family over, and I will cook.”
“Actually . . .” He hesitated. “Aji has told me she is coming here to meet Jia.”
Adil’s head came up. “I see.”
Dev flinched at his uncle’s carefully neutral tone. Adil had never met his sister’s husband’s parents, and had only spoken with them on the phone when Dev and Rohan’s parents had died.
While his grandfather had sneered at any mention of his mother, Adil Uncle had been careful to never malign Dev’s father or his paternal family in his presence. Dev would never permit his uncle to feel left out of important family decisions. “Of course, you will be there as well. Jia has already met you, you will be a friendly face. You live with us, it is even more important you get along.”
Adil cleared his throat and dashed his arm over his eyes. “Yes, yes. I would like that very much. By the way, you should speak to Luna.”
Dev stilled. Oh no. That did not sound promising. “Did you tell her?”
“I didn’t have to. Her friends have been texting her all morning. She was deeply unhappy when I picked her up from her sleepover.”
He hadn’t gotten to Luna soon enough. “Unhappy how?”
“She wouldn’t talk to me or look me in the eye, only asked if it was true. I couldn’t tell her if it was or wasn’t.”
“I’ll talk to her.”
“Do that. And then we can discuss what you know of Jia’s favorite sweets. I must make her something when we come together.”
Dev didn’t think his uncle meant pancakes, so he made a mental note to ask Jia if there were any Desi sweets she liked or was interested in. “Yes, of course.” Dev patted Adil on the shoulder as he walked past him.
Dev knocked on Luna’s door. There was no answer, so he knocked again.
“What?”
He raised an eyebrow at the sullen tone. “Luna, it’s me. May I come in?”
There was such a long pause, Dev shifted, wondering if she’d deny him. “Fine.”
He opened the door slowly. “Hey, beti.”
Luna didn’t look up from her phone. “What do you want?”
“I heard you learned some gossip about me.”
She stiffened. “Is it gossip or is it true?”
Dev came to sit on the edge of her bed. “Can you please put your phone down?”
“No.”
He raked his hand through his hair, taken aback by her blatant defiance. This must have been what Adil Uncle had experienced with the great Bagel Bites War. “Please?”
He was relieved that she tossed the phone to the side, because he wasn’t sure what to do with open and obvious mutiny. He was also relieved she was speaking in Hindi and not a language he didn’t understand.
The hurt in her eyes made him cringe. He sat on the side of the bed. “The rumors are true.”
“You said you were just friends with her. My friends sent me messages this morning asking if you’d really been talking to her for months.”
“We started as just friends.” He hoped she didn’t notice that he was sidestepping the thing about him talking to her for months. He felt like he had. Did that count? “You’re upset, and you’re right to be,” he said gently. “I should have told you earlier.”
“Why would you? My dad barely told me what was going on in his life, either. You’re like him. I’m nothing to you.”
Oh no. Dev slowly gathered her hands up, giving her time to pull away if she wanted to. “I know I wasn’t around much before your father passed, but it sounds like he tried to protect you as best he could.”
Luna blinked rapidly, and he waited for her to cry, but she kept the tears at bay. He’d rather she cry. A good sob never hurt a teenager, as far as he was concerned.